Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

Pakistan mob burns man accused of desecrating Koran alive


key2thecup

Recommended Posts

Pakistan mob burns man accused of desecrating Koran alive

(Reuters) - A mob broke into a Pakistani police station and burnt a man accused of desecrating the Koran alive, police said Saturday, in the latest violence focusing attention on the country's blasphemy laws.

The man was a traveler and had spent Thursday night at the mosque, said Maulvi Memon, the imam in the southern village of Seeta in Sindh province. The charred remains of the Koran were found the next morning.

"He was alone in the mosque during the night," Memon said. "There was no one else there to do this terrible thing."

Villagers beat the man then handed him over to police. A few hours later, a crowd of around 200 stormed the police station, dragged the man out and set him on fire, said Usman Ghani, the senior superintendent of police in Dadu district.

Ghani said around 30 people had been arrested for the murder and seven police detained for negligence.

At least 53 people have been killed in Pakistan since 1990 after being accused of blasphemy, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies, and accusations are becoming more frequent.

Blasphemy in Pakistan is punishable by death but it is not specifically defined by law. During court cases, lawyers often do not wish to repeat evidence against the accused for fear of being blasphemous themselves.

People have been arrested for just discussing or writing about Islam, making mistakes in homework or not joining protests against a film insulting Islam. In some cases, the accusers have had financial disputes with those who are accused.

Most recently, international attention focused on the case of Rimsha Masih, a Christian teenager accused of having some burnt pages of a child's exercise book quoting the Koran in a bag of rubbish she was carrying.

The case was dismissed last month after a neighbor came forward to say she was framed, possibly to chase Christians out of her neighborhood.

In the past two years, two senior Pakistani officials who suggested reforming the laws have been shot dead, one by his own bodyguard. Lawyers threw rose petals at the killer and the judge who convicted him was forced to flee the country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/22/us-pakistan-blasphemy-idUSBRE8BL03R20121222

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why would a stranger travel to another village, sleep in the mosque and go burn the quran? In Pakistani and other South Asian countries' rural villages it's normal for a stranger passing thru needing a place to rest for the night to spend a night at the mosque or temple.

Used to be more common but with modernization and better infrastructure its not as common anymore. Still these are rural farming villages with no hotels around for miles. It's normal for villagers to provide a meal and let the stranger sleep at the local mosque.

If given this hospitality by these villagers why would someone desecrate their religious texts? If he did this he would know he would cause or be in trouble.

In the past these types of tactics have been used by intelligence agencies to cause discourse between different faiths in a community. It used to be a very common practice of ISI to use this tactic in India.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why would a stranger travel to another village, sleep in the mosque and go burn the quran? In Pakistani and other South Asian countries' rural villages it's normal for a stranger passing thru needing a place to rest for the night to spend a night at the mosque or temple.

Used to be more common but with modernization and better infrastructure its not as common anymore. Still these are rural farming villages with no hotels around for miles. It's normal for villagers to provide a meal and let the stranger sleep at the local mosque.

If given this hospitality by these villagers why would someone desecrate their religious texts? If he did this he would know he would cause or be in trouble.

In the past these types of tactics have been used by intelligence agencies to cause discourse between different faiths in a community. It used to be a very common practice of ISI to use this tactic in India.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...